Sift questions, answered

Sift is a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji that hides the listings you don’t want, marks price drops, flags scam red flags and alerts you to new listings first. It works on the pages you already use, in Chrome, Edge or Brave on a computer, and needs no account. See every feature.

Sift is made by the Sift team, independently, with no ties to Facebook or Kijiji. It is not owned by a marketplace, an advertiser or a data company. The About page has more on who we are, how Sift is paid for and how we write our guides.

No. Sift is independent and not affiliated with Meta, Facebook or Kijiji. It is a separate browser extension that changes how Marketplace and Kijiji look in your own browser, and it has no special access to either site.

No. Sift at siftmarketplace.com is a shopping extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji buyers. It has no connection to Sift, the fraud-prevention company at sift.com, or to the SIFT image algorithm. The shared name is a coincidence.

No. Sift follows clear rules you can see: your filters, the prices it has recorded, the other listings on the page and known scam wording. Every hidden listing shows the reason it went, and every warning chip shows the words that triggered it. How Sift decides explains each rule.

Sift is coming soon to the Chrome Web Store. It is in its final round of testing, and the button on siftmarketplace.com goes live the day it lands. Bookmark the homepage to be first in line. There is no waiting list and no email sign-up.

Sift works in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Brave on a computer running Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS. Edge and Brave run Chrome extensions, so the same version works in all three.

Not today. Sift runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer. If Firefox or Safari is your everyday browser, you can keep it and open Marketplace in one of those three when you shop.

No. Sift is a browser extension, and phones don’t run them in the Facebook app, the Kijiji app or mobile browsers. It works on a computer: Windows, Mac, Linux or a Chromebook. Most of our guides also show what you can do on your phone without Sift.

Almost certainly, if you can use Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji there. Sift knows 2,000+ cities and regions in 45 countries for measuring distance, or it can use your position once. Distances work in kilometres or miles. See how the distance filter works.

Sift is available in 20+ languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Korean and Polish. The whole interface is translated, down to the chips on each listing, and it follows your browser’s language.

Yes. Sift hides sponsored listings, “Ships to you” items and partner listings such as eBay’s from every Facebook Marketplace search, and Top Ads on Kijiji, as each page loads. Our guide to hiding sponsored ads covers what works without Sift too.

Yes. Sift hides sold, pending and unavailable listings, including on your Saved page. For listings you’ve already opened, you choose: show them, dim them, hide them, or outline the ones you haven’t seen yet. See hiding sold and seen listings.

Sift hides any listing that mentions a word you block, or that misses a word you require. It matches whole words, so blocking “art” leaves the party tent alone. “Phrases in quotes” match as a phrase, a star matches word starts (financ* catches financing and financed), and accents are ignored. More in excluding words from a search.

Yes. Sift can hide dealer listings or tag them “Dealer”, and hide wanted, ISO and WTB posts. For cars it also filters by year and maximum mileage and hides salvage, rebuilt, flood, as-is and for-parts titles. See car filters.

Sift hides placeholder prices like $1, $123 and $1234, which sellers use to dodge price filters. A free-only mode shows genuinely free items and leaves out the “message for price” bait. Six starter packs of block words, from rentals to dropshippers, take a click each.

Click the pill at the bottom of the page. Sift shows everything it hid on that page, each with the reason it went, so you can bring a listing back or loosen the right filter in a second. You can also dim hidden listings instead of removing them.

Yes. Press h with the pointer over any listing and Sift hides it, with 6 seconds to undo. Later, you can bring it back from the peek view. Esc closes the peek.

Sift remembers every price it sees while you browse and keeps that record on your computer. When a price falls, a badge such as ↓ 25% shows the drop from the highest price Sift has seen; hover for every dated change and the lowest price. History starts the first time Sift sees a listing. See the price tracker.

Sift marks each listing Below typical, Typical or Above typical compared with the other listings on the same results page, once there are at least eight usable prices. It is a quick read, not an appraisal: a narrow search gives a sharper verdict. Read more in is this a good price?

Yes. From any listing, Sift opens eBay sold prices for the item, Google Lens on the listing photo, Google Shopping for the price new, or the same search on the other site, in one click. They are plain links, never affiliate links.

It means the seller deleted the listing and posted the same item again to look new. Sift recognises it and shows when the item first appeared and at what price, so you know how long it has really been for sale before you make an offer.

Sift checks a watched search as often as every 15 minutes; you choose 15, 30 or 60. Click Watch this search on any Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji search page to start. See new-listing alerts.

Up to 10 searches at once, across Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji. Each one keeps its own filters, so a watch for dining tables only alerts you to tables that pass your price, distance and blocked words.

Yes, your browser needs to be running, but the Marketplace or Kijiji tab doesn’t need to be open. Sift checks in the background while you’re at your computer and holds off during quiet hours, so nothing buzzes at 3 a.m.

No. Sift sends one notification per watched search per check, such as “3 new · couch, Toronto”, and only for listings that pass your filters first. Listings you’ve filtered out never ping you.

Sift adds a “Check this” chip to listings that ask for a deposit or payment first (e-transfer first, gift cards, wire, Zelle, PayPal friends), want to move off the platform (WhatsApp, “text me at”, phone numbers, emails), come from a remote seller, or are priced under half the going rate on the page. See the scam checker.

No, and no tool can. Sift points out wording and prices that scam warnings from Meta, the FTC and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre describe, but a careful scammer can write a clean listing. Meet in person, inspect, then pay. Our scam guide has the full checklist.

It depends on the extension, so check three things. Which sites can it access? Does it ask for your password? Does it send data to its own server? Sift asks only for facebook.com and kijiji.ca, never asks for a password, and has no server. Our extension comparison applies the same questions to others.

Sift reads the listings on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji pages: titles, prices, places, photos and posting times. It never reads your messages, friends, profile, passwords or payment details, and it never posts, messages, likes or buys anything for you.

On your computer. Sift has no account, no analytics and no server, so nothing about your browsing reaches us. Your settings sync through your browser’s own sync if you use it, and your listing history stays local. Clear it any time from Sift’s Data page. The privacy policy has the details.

Sift only changes what you see in your own browser, the way an ad blocker does. It never posts, messages, likes or buys anything for you, and its alert checks are no faster than a person refreshing a search. It is the same page you would load yourself, filtered on your screen.

No. Sift only touches listings. Messages, groups and profiles stay exactly as they are, and one switch in the popup puts every page back the way the site shows it.

Yes. Every Sift feature is free, with no account, no card and no trial. Sift has no ads and sells no data, because it collects none.

Sift Pro is in the works, for people who check Marketplace before their email. It will add optional extras on top of the free version, and nothing that is free today will move behind a paywall. Details come here first, when it is ready.